At the end of the Second World War Frederick Gordon Greer (known as Mick) joined the Practice. During the war he was a Captain in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps serving in the Chindits in N India (devoicing mules amongst other things).

He took over from Jimmy who later died from Tuberculosis. Jimmy had rarely kept books and only collected payments from clients when they offered them (sometimes in the street). Mick reorganised the Practice running it with a string of Veterinary Assistants. The pharmacy arsenal in those days consisted of few drugs – perhaps a few bottles of calcium, several hundred weight of sulphanilamide and some Epsom salts!

Mick took on Harold Geoffrey Holt (no relation) as a partner in 1963. Walter James joined the Practice in 1965 from work in Shropshire. He came in as a partner straight away having been known to the Practice as a student and having been a locum for the Practice in 1959 when he qualified. The image shows the students from his class at Liverpool University. Walter lived initially in a bedsit downstairs at the front of the 81 St Helens Road house.

Geoff Holt qualified in 1960 and initially worked in Crosby and then Bury from where he brought many clients to the Practice, this meant at the time that the Practice served farms over a 600 sq mile area.

In 1965 the Practice was known as Greer, Holt and James and the work consisted of 50% farm and equine work and 50 % small animal work.

‘Mick’ Greer died in the early 1970s and David Maddrell Joined the Practice becoming a partner in the mid 1970’s (At that time he and his wife Julie drove a moped!). Later in the decade Geoff Holt died from Leukaemia and the partners James and Maddrell continued the business until Anthony Buxton became a partner.

Walter James retired from the partnership in 1991 but still enjoyed continuing to work for the practice part-time until he had a heart bypass in May 1995. Walter and his wife Anne live on a local farm where they are fully enjoying Walter’s well earned retirement, own a collection of Morgan Horses and ride and garden their land to keep fit.

Neil Taylor and Chad Northcott worked for the practice for several years until they became partners in 1993 and 1997 respectively. Tony Buxton retired from the Partnership in 1998.

The Leigh property over this time scale expanded as the houses 79 and 81 St Helen’s Road became part of the Practice becoming operating theatres, kennels, office and accommodation. Work carried out in 1999 involved total refurbishment and redevelopment of the Leigh site incorporating ‘state of the art’ facilities. The house at 79 was sold in 1979.

The surgery at Bolton was initially at the lower end of Tonge Moor Road and was owned by the Canine Defence League before being bought by Greer in the late 1960’s. This was pulled down to allow for road widening and the Surgery was move to 393 Tonge Moor Road and expanded into 395 shortly afterwards.

There used to be a branch surgery at Swinton which was built into a thriving business by David Maddrell in the early 1980’s (David having carried out by hand much of the interior design). The Swinton surgery was sold to Tony Buxton as part of his retirement settlement.

Greer also used to own a branch in Wigan that was run by one of his assistants Ben Caldwell. This was sold on to a Geoff Worrior soon after Walter became a partner and for a while this was the Practice’s only real source of competition for much of the work in Hindley and surrounding area.

In 1965 the Practice also had a branch in Culcheth that was set up to work for the planned Warrington New town which was never built at the originally planned site. The surgery building now houses a Taxi Company.

Today the Practice is thriving with a new Veterinary Centre opened at Hindley in 1999 and the Practice serving a small animal client base approaching 50 000. There are over 30 employees in total and the Practice is very proud of the reputation it has earned over the years.

The Practice became 100% small animal in 1998 after the loss of many of the small Dairy Herds we used to serve and with the advent of purely equine Veterinary Centres better set up to serve the needs of their clients. The Practice personnel are now focussing on their own specialisations within the realms of small animal work although the Partners all have fond memories of the their Farming adventures.